ALEXANDER MCDOWELL

See also:

• ALEXANDER MCDOWELL MCCOOK (1831-1903)

MCCOOK (1831-1903)  , American soldier, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, on the 22nd of April 1831 . He graduated at the U . S. military academy in 1852, served against the Apaches and Utes in New Mexico in 1853-57, was assistant instructor of infantry tactics at the military academy in 1858-1861, and in April 1861 became colonel of the 1st Ohio Volunteers . He served in the first battle of Bull Run; commanded a brigade in Kentucky in the winter of 1861, a division in Tennessee and Mississippi early in 1862, and the 1st Corps in Kentucky in October of the same year; was in command of Nashville in November and December of that year; and was then engaged in Tennessee until after the battle of Chickamauga, after which he saw no active service at the front during the Civil War . He was promoted to be brigadier-general of volunteers in September 1861, and to be major-general of volunteers in July 1862, earned the brevet of lieutenant-colonel in the regular army at the capture of Nashville, Tennessee,that of colonel at Shiloh, and that of brigadier-general at Perryville, and in March 1865 was breveted major-general for his services during the war . In February-May 1865 he commanded the district of Eastern Arkansas . He. resigned from the volunteer service in October 1865, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 26th Infantry in March 1867, served in Texas, mostly in garrison duty, until 1874, and in 1886-1890 (except for brief terms of absence) commanded Fort Leaven-worth, Kansas, and the infantry and cavalry school there . He became a brigadier-general in 1890, and a major-general in 1894; retired in 1895; and in 1898-1899 served on a commission to investigate the United States department of war as administered during the war with Spain . His father, DANIEL MCCOOK (1798-1863), killed at Buffing-ton's Island during General John H . Morgan's raid in Ohio, and seven of his eight brothers (three of whom were killed in battle) all served in the Civil War; this family and that of JOHN McCooE (1806-1865), Daniel's brother, a physician, who served as a volunteer surgeon in the Civil War, are known as the " fighting McCooks "—four of John's sons served in the Union army and one in the Union navy .